1 Topic by thsorensen

  • thsorensen
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Topic: spool arm with bearing?

Howdy!

I don´t know if this is a good idea, or not, but I have created a filament spool arm with a bearing, so the filament roll can roll smoother.

Some times when my SD3 was doing long movements alone the X axis, it felt like the nozzle was struggling hard to drag the filament of the roll. My main concern was that I felt that there was too much resistance between the filament roll and the PVC-pipe that is shipped with the SD3.

And, I have "imagined" that this caused that some of the threads on a straight wall could be inconsistent.

HEre is a pic of the idea,
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/lb895sabz1lm75m/Photo%2001.05.14%2001%2023%2027.jpg

And here is some video on attaching the filament, and when it´s running:


The best idea would probably be to have the filament on top of the printer, but I don´t have space to put it there, so I have to keep the filament on the back.

Anyone have an opinion?

--Thomas

2 Reply by thsorensen

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Re: spool arm with bearing?

The only thing I'm think is missing, is some sort of retract stopper, so the filament roll doesn't go backwards when the nozzle head have mooved from top of the X axsis and all tge way back down.

3 Reply by elmoret

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Re: spool arm with bearing?

This shouldn't be needed, though some folks have done similar things.

Are you sure you haven't confused X and Y? Looking at the printer from the front, X is left/right.

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4 Reply by thsorensen (edited by thsorensen 2014-05-09 21:03:10)

  • thsorensen
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Re: spool arm with bearing?

elmoret wrote:

This shouldn't be needed, though some folks have done similar things.

Are you sure you haven't confused X and Y? Looking at the printer from the front, X is left/right.

Yes, thank you elemoret,  I actually meant the Y axis.

The problem - if there is such a thing - should be noticeable when extruding in the X axis, because then all the tension will be on the filament roll and the printer head motor.

And, as you said, this shouldn´t be needed, and probably it´s not. If there is a difference between this solution and the original PVC-pipe, it´s probably only 1/5 of a step.

I can do some testing, and print some objects with the same settings, and report back here smile

--Thomas

5 Reply by Claghorn

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Re: spool arm with bearing?

Here's my spool holder with garage door roller bearings (because they were easy to get):

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:168935

It does need a lot of space above the printer though, especially once I decided to extend my foamboard cover over the whole spool holder.

Claghorn's Website